Rachel Reeves crying in the House of Commons

[IdaGlossop]

AIBU to think it's possible to feel sympathy for Rachel Reeves for being visibly upset at Prime Minister's Question Time today, even if you revile Labour and its policies?

Lots of misogyny on Twitter - the UK is a laughing stock because of the behaviour of menopausal women in the Commons (including an example of Stella Creasy with her baby in a sling asleep and another of Angela Rayner flashing); women can't hack it etc etc.

I can only imagine it must feel dreadful to know the world has watched you in distress and that the financial markets have reacted because of fears of government instability. The phrase 'bring your whole self to work' is a piece of HR speak I can't abide but what we saw today was Rachel Reeves doing just that. Despite my sympathy for her, it would have been better all round for the upset part of her to have stayed in her Downing Street flat.

The statement released by the House of Commons said it was a private, personal matter. For all any of you on here know, she could’ve lost an immediate family member or be about to. Yet here you all are, yet still denigrating & vilifying her without any of the facts behind why she was actually so upset.
I mean, I can’t stand the woman but she’s still a human being for fuck’s sake. Grow up and find an ounce of compassion at least until you/we discover what it was….. If we discover what it was.

I’m no Labour supporter, and i’ve criticised her before, but it’s awful to see someone cry so publicly. I would say though that it’s more likely to be a personal issue than a political one. You don’t go into politics with a thin skin. They get everything thrown at them - on a personal level and a professional level. I think whatever our political leanings, we shouldn’t be gleeful that someone is crying. Especially when we don’t know the reason.

This. She has always been way out of her depth bringing in one disastrous policy after another. Driving out Non Dom's who paid a lot of tax in UK, picking on the elderly and disabled, risking food insecurity by taxing farmers passing on a farm to his DC. Her worst blunder by far increasing NICS on businesses. Yet she could bung the NHS billions above inflation, give train drivers as huge above inflation pay rise, and all civil servants got a decent payrise too. I didn't like Hunt at all but I did feel he was fiscally responsible. When he handed over the economy to RR it was going gangbusters according to BoE.

My brother has had severe MH issues (bipolar disorder that is only controlled by medication that turns him into a barely competent zombie). He has been on ESA and PIP for years and was on incapacity benefit and DLA for years before that.

Despite his very poor mental health, he only gets the standard rate of PIP (both components) and doesn't score 4 points for any descriptor. His income would fall massively if the orignal proposals had been put into effect, and he would never have coped with having to have appointments with the job centre, attend courses etc.

When these proposals were announced, he rang me in tears, saying that he would kill himself if his income was reduced to basic UC of £400 a month. I have heard similar comments from numerous clients (I'm a welfare rights worker and all my clients have mental health issues).

Given the awful impact that Reeves and Kendall's proposals have had on so many vulnerable people, I'm struggling to have sympathy for Reeves' tears.

If it was such an upsetting personal matter, she should never have gone into the chamber. If anyone made her do that, I think questions should be asked.

Nope no sympathy

and there’s a long thread already on this

if, as it is muted she is upset for personal reasons then she should have left the chamber

Oh, thanks so much for letting me know. I don't think I've ever seen seen you offer that little gem before. 🙄

And aren’t you going to feel like a twat with that comment if you find out that the reason she’s crying is due to some personal crisis - like illness in her family?

By the look of her swollen eyes she had been crying a LOT before she took her seat.
I feel very sorry indeed to see her reduced to this, she was hardly operating on her own .

Yeah loved it, a woman reaffirming the stereotype that women in senior leadership are "too emotional". Just what we needed.

Some of us have allowed for that.

But none of us know. If there’s a genuinely private, personal crisis then leave alone and sympathise.

If there isn’t, the ‘cover’ will be embarrassing and objectionable.

She didn’t make those decisions alone. She looked exhausted and very upset. Who knows what is going on. I’m not a labour supporter but do feel for her

Yes she’d had a tough emotional night probably. She looked totally spent.

Nor you with your gem.

Someone reminded me he actually pretended to cry during on TV during the pandemic 🤨.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=suwk1bNLqO8

If it isn’t a personal issue and DS or RR herself pretends it is she will get found out. And it will look much much worse.

You’re contradicting yourself here! Massively. In your own words, “leave alone and sympathise!” until you know different. Surely that’s the decent, human approach is it not?

That’s nonsense. Re-read what you wrote and think about it.

Matt Hancock cried when the extent of his callous incompetence was discovered. There was considerably less censure poured on him.

She looked like she’d been crying all night.

She’ll be telling you to google it in a minute.

And so she should be.

You’ll be telling people off for not googling for you in a minute.

And quoting as ever.

I am 60. RR is of an age where friends and family start to get ill/die or possibly get ill themselves.

Were I an MP, seeing somebody in such obvious distress, I would like to think that I would have asked her to leave the chamber with me on an urgent matter.

she doesn’t strike me as an “I’ll just cry a lot and people will feel sorry for me” sort of person.

She shouldn’t have been in the Commons in that state. If I was her I’d have resigned and called a press conference and gone for Starmer before he did for me.